The Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Union government on a petition challenging some provisions of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act.
Context
The Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Union government on a petition challenging some provisions of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act.
Issues raised by the petition
- Currently, the law does not allow single men to have children through surrogacy.
- Married women can only avail surrogacy services if they are unable to produce a child due to medical conditions.
- Otherwise, for women to avail of surrogacy services, they must be aged between 35 and 45 and widowed or divorced.
- Women can only offer surrogacy if they are aged between 25 and 35 and married with at least one biological child.
- The laws also require a surrogate to be genetically related to the couple who intend to have a child through this method, their petition said.
Features of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021
- Definition of surrogacy: It defines surrogacy as a practice where a woman gives birth to a child for an intending couple with the intention to hand over the child after the birth to the intending couple.
- Regulation of surrogacy: It prohibits commercial surrogacy, but allows altruistic surrogacy which involves no monetary compensation to the surrogate mother other than the medical expenses and insurance.
- Purposes for which surrogacy is permitted: Surrogacy is permitted when it is-
- for intending couples who suffer from proven infertility
- Altruistic
- not for commercial purposes
- not for producing children for sale, prostitution or other forms of exploitation
- for any condition or disease specified through regulations
- Eligibility criteria: The intending couple should have a ‘certificate of essentiality’ and a ‘certificate of eligibility’ issued by the appropriate authority ex. District Medical Board.
Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)
- It is used to treat infertility.
- It includes fertility treatments that handle both a woman's egg and a man's sperm.
- It works by removing eggs from a woman's body.
- The eggs are then mixed with sperm to make embryos.
- The embryos are then put back in the woman's body.
- In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most common and effective type of ART.
- ART procedures sometimes use donor eggs, donor sperm, or previously frozen embryos.
- It may also involve a surrogate or gestational carrier.
- A surrogate is a woman who becomes pregnant with sperm from the male partner of the couple.
- A gestational carrier becomes pregnant with an egg from the female partner and the sperm from the male partner.
- The most common complication of ART is a multiple pregnancy.
- It can be prevented or minimized by limiting the number of embryos that are put into the woman's body.
Surrogacy
- Surrogacy involves a woman agreeing to carry a baby for someone else.
- After the baby is born, the birth mother gives custody and guardianship to the intended parent or parents.
- A woman who agrees to carry and give birth to a baby for another person is a surrogate or birth mother.
- Parents of a baby born through a surrogacy arrangement are known as intended or commissioning parents.
- India is one of the few countries that still allow commercial surrogacy.
- Commercial surrogacy, on the other hand, is allowed in India without any legal basis.
- This essentially implies that, while commercial surrogacy is legal in India, there is no particular law governing it.
